


Pas de Trois

by Ann_O_Neem



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Borderline Personality Disorder, Eren has a lot of problems, Fairy Tale Curses, I Can't Write Angst, Levi isn't one, M/M, Protective Levi, Sassy Eren, Thief Levi, This wasn't supposed to be a horror story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 16:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2658041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ann_O_Neem/pseuds/Ann_O_Neem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't ever go in the Yaeger house. The Yaeger house is an old mansion. A <i>cursed</i> old mansion. That's what every kid in the village knows. But of course, Levi had to go there. And now, because he's stubborn like that, he has to live with some kind of numerical curse. And a crazy kid who seems to be tempted between killing or kissing him. He should have listened to those fairy tales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Three strikes and you're out

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a simple fairy tale. And it's more like Grimm's than Perrault's fairy tales, believe me.  
>  
> 
>  _**Pas de trois** _ : French term usually referring to a dance in ballet between three people.

 

_Don't ever go in the Yaeger house._

That's what every kid in the village knows. Even when the harvests haven't been that great and that the farmers can't feed their families, no one ever tried to go there and fetch some edible plants.

The Yaeger house is an old mansion, with windows made of glass and candles that never run out of wax. It isn't made of wood, mud and hay like everyone's cottage but is in fact made of bricks that have the color of dried blood. Not that anyone has seen them as the whole house is covered in ivy and all kind of vegetation.  
But above everything else, the Yaeger house is cursed.

There have been a lot of legends about that house and about its first inhabitants.

They were quite the loved and respected family, count Yaeger had been an eminent doctor that never made his patients pay as much as the new doctor did now, while his spouse, lady Carla was a lovely woman with a heartwarming smile who always had a sweet for the street kids. They were the perfect couple and this was why their curse had been such a terrifying and marking story for the townspeople.

And this was also why Levi was planning to use that abandoned place as his stronghold. It was the perfect plan, no one dared to even think of going there as they had all been fed with those old wives tales about cursed houses and monsters that screeched in the basement. Thus, making Levi the only sane person who would go there and actually have a nice bed without a leaking roof.

He was a bloody genius and he knew it.

"You shouldn't do that," Isabel told him while she scrunched the tip of her nose and pushed back a strand of her fiery hair under her hood. "It's dangerous!"

Isabel had always been his best comrade whenever he went to steal or annoy the rich people in town. But since she had gotten to her fifteenth winter, she had withdrawn into herself and had taken to hide her red hair under scarves and hoods, and went every morning at the mass like every good kid. The witch hunter staying at her family's hostel had scared her into obedience.

Levi sighed and ignored his friend's plea while he checked his bag. The rope, hunk of stale bread and almost rotten apple hadn't moved from the patched bag. He put the bag strap under his coat made of a simple blanket that he had stolen in one of the bourgeois' house and slightly softened his gaze when he looked at Isabel. Her green eyes were glistening with worry and the familiar spark of her fiery temper was rearing its head in her pursed lips.

"At least, let me go with you!" she insisted.

"No," Levi retorted with a frown. "You have to wait for Farlan's signal. I'll go ahead to shake those idiots from my tail."

Isabel sighed with an aggravated expression and shook her head.

"But what did you have to steal that dagger, big bro," she whispered. "You already have a ton!"

"That one is in steel," the boy curtly explained.

He only had weapons made of bronze and they wouldn't be as good as that dagger. Levi had already sold all his old weapons and prepared himself to stay low until the annoying French knight (from whom he had stolen that lovely dagger) left the town.  
Thus, his amazing plan to hide in the Yaeger house.

Who knows, maybe it even hid some kind of treasure in there. A thief's wet dream.

"If you say so, big bro," Isabel smiled happily at him before she softly pushed him. "You have to leave now, you can't go in the forest at night..."

Levi rolled his eyes at the superstitious belief and promptly left with a curt nod toward the redhead. He immediately left the road and took one of the paths that the poachers liked to take. Levi had often accompanied them, helping them whenever they needed to skewer their preys and taking some bits of the animals for himself. It was nice, the poachers weren't talkative and they actually liked his colorful language, making their precarious alliance work quite easily. But that was in spring and as the winter was as stronger as ever, Levi was pretty sure that even the poachers wouldn't be around to notice him walk towards the Yaeger house.

It wasn't that hard to find, there was at least three paved paths under all the brambles, blackberry bushes and nettles. Levi cursed under his breath when one of the nettles, bigger than himself, grazed his face and provoked the irritating reaction.

The dark haired teenager muttered with annoyance as he walked in the mud, his thin boots not being enough to protect him against the cold and humidity of the mud, before he let out a heavy sigh once the muddy and thorny path opened to a gigantic clearing.

The Yaeger house was there, in its mysterious and desolated glory. Levi noticed that the door was closed and that the windows hadn't been broken by all those years of being inhabited. There was ivy everywhere, climbing all around the house structure and even going in the tiny cracks of the bricks. However, the ivy hadn't entered the house (from what Levi could see) and hadn't extended itself on the clearing.

In fact, in a perimeter of a hundred yards, there was only grass and even bushes of roses around the house. Not a single weed.

That was strange. And if Levi had been as superstitious and stupid as all the townspeople, he would have immediately changed his mind and left the clearing.

However, Levi was quite a stubborn boy and he simply shrugged, muttered a small "Not bad" at the absence of weeds and mud, and carried on. He walked to the porch, his gray eyes keenly looking around and checking if there wasn't any beast or owl living in there before he slightly relaxed. Once he was in front of the heavy door (probably mahogany as the riches always liked those strange woods coming from faraway lands), Levi glanced at the darkening sky and pursed his lips.

He couldn't see the sunset from here, the trees were too big and didn't even let him see the night sky.

It looked like some kind of tree wall and disturbed him. But as that would be like admitting that he believed in those fairy tales, Levi ignored his feeling of being caged and put his hand on the door handle.

The handle wasn't made of wood like in the slump houses, but in metal. It looked like some kind of snake, the size of his fist and Levi widened his eyes when he noticed that the metal was warm against his cold skin. He tensed right there, in front of that closed door, and swiftly looked around him.

It hadn't snowed that winter and there was only mood on the ground so if someone had been around, he would see their prints in the mud. And, even if the light was slowly fading out and it was getting as dark as Satan's asshole, Levi could nonetheless see the footprints.

They were deep and even so he quickly ruled out thieves like himself. Also, the spaces between each footprint was stable and quite wide compared to himself.

So a young person, taller than him.

That plan of his didn't sound that great right now. But well, Levi was a stubborn little bastard so he decided to keep going and, if there really was someone living there and that they didn't want to cohabit with him, he could always use his new dagger.

The sun had totally gone down when Levi opened the front door. The hinges creaked quite a bit and the teenager flinched when he heard the creaking. He stood at the opening, holding his breath and waited for some kind of monster (be it a fat farmer or a vampire) to jump at his throat.

But nothing happened.

Reassured that he wasn't going to die at instant he put a foot in that abandoned house, Levi sighed and took a step into the vestibule. Nothing attacked him. He seriously was on a roll.

Now convinced that his life wasn't in danger of being suddenly cut short, Levi began to explore the house, his eyes widening when he found old portraits of the count Yaeger and his wife and frowning when he found a big leak in the kitchen ceiling that had transformed the whole room into a swamp. Though it was nothing that he couldn't fix.

However, nothing could top his delight when he found out that there was a water closet in the first floor. And it worked. For the first time of the day, Levi smiled in delight and he even found himself about to giggle when he noticed that the water was clear and still running. The Yaeger house was better than the King's castle and Levi had it all for himself.

A sudden creak behind him quickly reminded him that it wasn't really true.  
That and the impact of something extremely hard and heavy against his skull.

Levi fainted right on the spot.

* * *

 

To be quite honest with you, Levi had never been a morning person. Mostly because he wasn't that accustomed to sleep a whole night and was more accustomed to grasp some little naps that didn't help at all with his already horrible character.

And this explains why the first thing that came out of his mouth once he woke up from his painful induced sleep was a string of extremely colorful curses and swears at the brown haired youth in front of him. The other boy didn't even blink, his eyes were observing him and judging him in silence while his youthful features were twisted into an ugly scowl.

"And who the fuck are you?" the boy swiftly cut through the heavy shower of insults that was offering Levi with his quite concise question.

The black haired teen blinked, momentarily taken aback by the suave and confident voice before he remembered that the other boy had been the one who had put him to sleep thanks to a rock.

"I'm Levi Ackerman," he answered. "And you? What's your name? Gigantic Shit? Tiny Dong?"

The brown haired boy snorted and rolled his eyes while he leaned against the door. Levi finally noticed that he was sitting on the floor and that he had been tied with his own rope.

"Come on," the boy taunted him with a smirk on par. "You can do better than that,  _Levi~_ "

"Yeah, you can say my name, fucking great, you piece of shit," muttered Levi with an annoyed eye roll on par. "Now untie me before I decide to kick your ass to the moon..."

The other boy snorted another time and took a step toward Levi before he decided to kneel in front of the teenager.

"And why should I do that?" he retorted as he cocked his head with an (extremely obvious) fake innocent aura flowing around him. "You're the one who barged in my house in the middle of the night!"

Levi's expression didn't change and he simply blinked before he narrowed his eyes and hissed through his teeth.

"I'll fucking kill you," he promised quietly.

The boy laughed and shook his head. He stood up and left the room with a small chuckle.

"Keep going like that and I'll never untie you," he said just as he closed the living room door behind him.

And just like that, Levi was left alone with his own thoughts and an empty room. Also, he had to take a shit.

* * *

 

In the following day, during which the little shit, whose name he still didn't know, hadn't visited him even once, Levi had a lot of time to think. Mostly about his poor choices in life and how he hated the boy that had left him to die in an abandoned house.

He just hated that boy with all his guts. That were full of shit.

In fact, he was about to shit himself and that went against everything that made Levi himself. So, sending his own pride to hell, the dark haired boy began to scream for help. Although it took some time (the sun was already setting when the boy came back), Levi couldn't help but be relieved when he saw the boy's grin expression.

"About fucking time," Levi muttered as he crawled on the carpet (it was dusty and he could feel the parasites in it crawl over his skin. He wanted a bath, right fucking now). "Untie me or I'll shit all over your feet."

The boy squeaked and immediately went to untie the other. Levi sighed in relief when the rope stopped constricting his moves and he tried to stand but the boy didn't even let him try to. He took Levi's right arm and put it around his neck before he walked with wide steps towards the restroom, dragging the thief with him. Levi didn't complain and merely shunned out the boy once he was in front of his own version of heaven. In fact, he was pretty sure that some kind of angels began to serenade him when he emptied his bowels and flushed the water.  
It was just so fucking clean.

"Sorry about that," the boy told him once Levi got out of the restroom (he had in fact considered living there). "I kind of... forgot that you were there..."

Levi blinked and almost furrowed his brows. How could someone forget about the existence of a thief in his own house? Even if it wasn't really his house as it had been abandoned.

"It's just that," the boy added with a nervous chuckle. "I don't have frequently guests over so I forget about them..."

"You forget about them," Levi repeated as a puzzled expression began to form on his face. "So it has happened before?"

The boy's face lightened and he smiled while he nodded.

"Sorry about yesterday by the way," he added and even if there wasn't some kind of light around to confirm it, Levi knew that the other boy was blushing. "I thought that you were a thief and I acted impulsively."

"Doesn't matter," the dark haired teenager shrugged. "I am a thief so I can understand."

"That's good to know," the boy laughed happily before his features froze in shock. "Wait! You're a thief?!"

Levi nodded with a bored look. However, while he may look like he was bored, the young thief was in fact puzzled by the change of character that showed the boy. The other day, that boy had been vulgar, aggressive and extremely self-confident. Today, however, he was acting all bashful and polite with him. Did he have some kind of mental illness?

"Oh," the boy blinked and rubbed nervously his neck. "I'm sorry to say that but could you not steal? Everything in this house is really precious and I can't substitute it..."

"Even the puny kitchen knives?" Levi asked because he had seen some of them in the swamp like kitchen.

They were made of silver and with golden scriptures, Levi was pretty sure that he could sell them for quite a high price.

"Even those," the boy answered with a grave face.

Levi pursed his lips into an annoyed scowl. He had found his treasure (those knives were only the beginning, he still had two floors to explore) but there was an annoying little pest protecting it. But he could always live in there and wait for the perfect occasion to steal those.

"I won't," the dark haired teenager shrugged. "But only if you let me stay in here. It's winter and I can't sleep outside..."

As he had hoped, the boy frowned and glanced at the window with a sad face.

"We have a deal," the boy retorted but his expression suddenly changed and a challenging smirk suddenly appeared on his face. "But only if you bring three things here every day."

Levi raised a brow in surprise and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Bring three things here?" he repeated with his two eyebrows raised. "What kind of things? And why three?"

"I can't really explain," the boy shrugged. His smirk had disappeared and he was back to his bashful self. "There just has to be three new things every day or something really bad will happen..."

"What kind of thing?" Levi insisted.

The boy took a deep breath and looked at the dark haired teenager. The latter widened his eyes in surprise when he saw that the boy's face had once again changed. But in lieu of the bashful expression or the smirk full of spark and challenge, there was only two solemn eyes that looked older than the boy himself.

"Yesterday, we took your name, an apple and bread. Today, it was your rope, coat and dagger. If you want to keep living, it would be better if you followed his advice... He seems to like you while the other wishes you were dead," the boy whispered in a husky voice. "But in my opinion, you'll be way better off if you just left this house."

Levi felt as if he had been sucker punched by the stranger. Mostly because the boy had taken his dagger and was threatening him with some shitty excuses that sounded a lot like the story in the rumors about the Yaeger House.

"What the bloody hell are you even talking about," the dark haired teen hissed angrily.

The boy blinked, his incredibly wide eyes glowing in the shadows of the dark room, before he tilted his head.

"Didn't you hear it?" he asked in that same husky voice. "The Yaeger house is cursed. Or rather, we are. My family had to pay the price of three and since then, I remain. I'm the keeper of the Yaeger house and the one who makes sure that no one will have to suffer through what already happened."

"Wait a minute!" Levi exclaimed once he connected the dots between the rumors and what the boy had told him. "You're that man's son! Count Yaeger's son!"

"I'm Eren Yaeger," the boy acquiesced. "Or rather, what remains of him. You have already met my other selves."

Levi furrowed his brows. There seemed to be a recurrence of the same number in this story, from what he could remember of that annoying fairy tale, and another number that ended being stronger than the first one.

"Let me resume this," the dark haired man raised a hand to stop the boy from talking. "This house is cursed and everyone in it has to give three things to keep living?"

The boy nodded with a grim face, his wide eyes looking without ever blinking at Levi.

"So if I want to keep living here, I have to give you three things every day?"

The boy nodded.

"But they must be different every day," he clarified. "You can give on the same day the same thing but the following day, it must be different."

Levi closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

' _Not a plan as good as you had thought,_ ' he chided himself before he soldiered on and opened his eyes.

"Okay," he nodded. "I'll follow that deal. Tomorrow, I'll give you three things. But in exchange, I want those knives."

The boy tilted his head and slowly blinked, his face slowly softening while his lips shivered.

"But they are important!" he insisted.

It was another of the boy's persona, Eren's other self. Bashful Eren as Levi promptly named him.

"For what?" the latter asked him.

Bashful Eren knitted his brows and pursed his lips.

"I guess you could take three of them," he muttered before a shudder make his whole frame shake.

His big eyes narrowed and his lips thinned into a scowl.

"Like hell, I'm gonna let you take those!" he snarled.

By this time, Levi was already getting tired of those swift changes in personalities so he sighed and ignored the Angry Eren's complains and insults.

"I want to talk with Eren," he told him with a scowl.

Angry Eren scoffed and muttered something that Levi couldn't quite catch before his face lost all kind of emotion and his eyes widened.

"Yes?" Eren asked with his inexpressive voice.

"Where can I sleep?"

"You can choose whatever room pleases you," the boy answered him. "Except those in the third floor. There are to be untouched."

"Go figure," Levi muttered. He shook his head and decided that he had had enough to strange and probably supernatural things happening around him. "Let's call it a night. Goodnight Eren."

The brown haired boy didn't answer him, his large eyes watching him leave the room in silence.

It was Levi's second night in the Yaeger house.


	2. Moving three times is as bad as fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi should stop being so stubborn and just admit that he's scared.  
> And Eren needs a hug.

Levi woke up to the sound of an irritating bird. It was a repetitive sound and just next to his window so he couldn't escape from it even if he wanted to.

The teenager grunted in his pillow and pushed away his heavy blanket, furrowing his brows while he pushed back the dark strands of hair that fell over his forehead. His head was still in the gutter and he didn't quite understand why he was in a bed (a nice and comfy bed) and not in the habitual pallet that he used in Isabel's attic with a leaking rooftop. Levi absentmindedly brushed back his hair with his fingers and blinked his eyes blearily while he slowly tried to wake up and finally understand where he was.

The annoying bird stopped singing and Levi widened his eyes.

He was in the Yaeger house and had accepted to follow its only inhabitant's strange rules.

The dark haired teenager groaned and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. The Yaeger boy was a strange fellow, with three different personalities and he had explained them by saying that it was a curse. But was it really?  
Levi had never been one to believe in fairy tales and he simply couldn't accept Yaeger's explanation as it was.

However, if he wanted to stay in the Yaeger house, he had to follow those rules. And Levi really wanted to stay, merely for the water closet but also because he was still being hunted down by that annoying French knight. Therefore, he had to find three things to give to the problematic boy before the end of the day.

And he had to find where Yaeger put all those things so he could get back his dagger.

Levi sighed and softly shook his head before he rolled out of his bed. His naked feet touched with a soft thump the plush and colored carpet and he slightly scowled when he noticed that his feet were dirtying the carpet. In fact, the white bedsheets were now streaked by mud and other things that Levi didn't even want to know about.

He really needed a bath. And to clean the whole room if he was going to sleep in there.

But first, he really needed to eat something. Levi nodded to himself and quickly put his boots before he got out of his room. To his surprise, he noticed that the corridors in the Yaeger house were wide and carpeted with a red and plush carpet. They were also windows that let the sun lighten the whole house and show him the way. Levi followed the muddy footprints that he had left the previous night and got back to the living room, searching for the Yaeger boy so he could tell him where he could find something to eat.

After all, Yaeger had to eat and if he never left the house (because Levi was pretty sure that the boy never did. Not when he couldn't stop himself from swapping personalities and there were still witch hunters in Germany), he was meant to have some kind of cellar full of food.

The dark haired teenager explored the Yaeger house with his goal in mind and wasn't surprised to see that there weren't any rodent in the house. The rooms were wide, well ventilated and there was even a bit of sunlight coming through the clean windows. For a famous abandoned house, it was quite clean.  
Levi continued walking through the first floor and went back to the swamp like kitchen, swiftly taking two of the filthy knives that he put in his pockets before he went back to the porch. He still hadn't found Yaeger. The dark haired teenager glanced at the heavy door and pursed his lips when he noticed that it was slightly open. So Yaeger could leave the house.

Levi decided to look for the boy outside and opened widely the door. He stood in the opening, his gray eyes searching for the strange boy and widening when they found a trail of blood on the flagstones of the porch. That hadn't been there the other day, Levi was sure of that.

He furrowed his brows and followed the trail of blood, tiptoeing as he tried to not leave footprints, until he arrived behind the Yaeger house.

The Yaeger boy was standing there, his head tilted towards the sky while a ray of light grazed his face.

It was the first time that Levi actually saw him.

Like he had thought, Yaeger had brown hair with cropped strands that fell all around his youthful face. The boy had his eyes closed and his mouth was thinned into a simple line while his eyebrows were furrowed in what seemed to be worry.

“What is this?” Levi asked when he had enough of the silence.

The brown haired boy opened his eyes and glanced at the thief. His eyes were two big and round blue orbs that widened in surprise before delight began to make them shine.

“Levi!” the boy exclaimed happily as he pranced towards the dark haired teen. “You haven't left!”

Levi frowned and slightly pursed his lips when he noticed the faint blush on the other boy's cheeks as well as the innocent smile.

Bashful Eren then.

“What is this?” the thief repeated as he moved his hand towards the circular meadow covered in blue flowers.

Bashful Eren looked down and his blush vanished while his face slowly turned grim. He was still standing in the middle of the blue flowers and Levi acutely noted that it wasn't at all the season for such a significant blossom. The flowers were high enough to caress Eren's knees and Levi didn't take a step towards the other boy. He stood right at the edge of the field and thinned his lips.

The presence of a blood trail and then the flower field in the middle of the winter wasn't at all reassuring him about the Yaeger house legends.

“Flowers,” Eren finally answered. His voice wasn't as happy as before and Levi cocked his head.

It was the Eren without emotions. But his face was twisted into a desperate expression and his eyes had darkened into a dark forest green. His frown deepened and the boy took a deep breath.

“They were a present,” Eren explained in a cold and chopped voice. “From one of my former guest...”

Levi didn't blink and observed the flowers swish under the cold wind. Yaeger was only wearing a simple shirt and brown pants but he didn't shiver under the winter wind. He looked like some kind of spring apparition, standing in that flowery meadow while he was surrounded by dead trees.

“Why?” Levi asked so he could change his mind from his strange thoughts about Eren.

The latter pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes that had suddenly turned yellow.

“Because I can't fucking leave!” he barked angrily seconds before he shook his head and send a smirk toward the thief. “Why are you standing there? Could you be scared?”

Levi tensed under the taunting words and snorted while he looked around him.

Yaeger (or rather Angry Eren) was still standing in the middle of the meadow, the blue flowers swishing around him. Big ass trees framed the whole thing and Levi felt the imposing presence of the Yaeger house behind him.

“Come on, _Levi_ ~” Angry Eren taunted him while he leaned a hand on his hips and smirked at the dark haired teen. “Join me if you aren't a chicken!”

Levi narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He moved a foot forward but immediately stopped when he noticed something strange. While he was still standing at the edge of the flower field, his foot had grazed some of the flowers petals and they had felt strangely hard against his thin boot. The thief promptly took a step back and sat on the grass, his eyes narrowing while he noticed something that he hadn't seen until then. There were some kind of little fungus growing all over the edge of the flower meadow, almost as if it was holding down the flowers. Levi felt a shiver run on his back when he remembered the old tales that the poachers like to talk about whenever they stopped hunting and hung around a fire.  
Tales about witches' rings and how if you were to enter it, you would end dead as it was the place where the witches danced on the Walpurgis Night.

“What is it with you, Levi~” Eren called as his lips thinned into a scowl. “Are you afraid of me?”

“No,” the thief retorted with a small huff. “Like I would be scared of a brat. But I won't go there.”

Angry Eren rolled his eyes and cursed in a low voice before he shook his head.

“Whatever,” he growled. “I was doing this for your own good...”

The brown haired boy began to walk through the meadow, the flowers swishing around his legs and Levi held his breath when he saw that the petals were moving by themselves, clutching to the boy's trouser and sometimes even pulling at it.

“Was it really a present from a guest?” the dark haired teenager asked once Eren got out of the witch's ring.

Eren's yellow eyes flashed with something akin to sadness but they were soon enough filled with hatred and anger.

“Yeah”, he spat angrily. “It was a present because he insisted that it wasn't part of his three things. I planted those flowers and since then, they grow and blossom. They are always blossoming.”

Levi blinked and glanced at the flower ring held back by the fungus.

“What happened to that guest?” he asked while he observed the blue flowers swing under the wind.

It looked like some kind of plantlike ocean with blue waves and a threat under that blue beauty.

Eren didn't answer him and began to curse at the cold weather while he rubbed vividly his arms.

* * *

 

Levi ended knowing that Eren had a little kitchen garden just under the kitchen window. The thief wasn't even surprised when he noticed that the vegetables were growing and ripe enough to be collected in the middle of winter.  
He was slowly getting to the point where he believed of the Yaeger house's curse.

They ate a stew of potatoes and some kind of bird that Eren hastily made while he ignored Levi. Not that the latter cared about it as he was slowly getting ready to get back in town to sell the knives. With the money, he would be able to buy some things needed to clean his new room and also abide by the three things rule.

Once he finished his stew and cleaned his plate and the pot, Levi took his empty bag and walked to the door. Eren was sitting on the porch, his blue eyes looking with admiration at the rare bits of sky that they could see through the big trees.

“Levi,” he smiled when he saw the dark haired teenager. But his smile soon fell of his face when he noticed the bag on the boy's shoulder as well as the dark expression on the latter's face. “Oh,” Eren whispered quietly with a downcast expression. “You're going back.”

Levi nodded and without a word left the Yaeger house. He walked through the grass, passing next to some of the roses bushes and he noticed with a shudder that there were actually three bushes. He quickened his steps and all but jumped on the muddy path into the forest.

* * *

 

“Big Bro!” Isabel screamed as she jumped at Levi's neck. “You're alive!”

Levi briefly patted her back and looked at the white haired teenager standing behind her. He had a smile on his face and his gray eyes were looking at them with fondness. However, Levi was more interested on the name plate on the teenager's arm and on the sheathe tied to his hip.

“Farlan,” he greeted with a curt nod.

“Levi,” the white haired boy said back while his smile widened. “It's good to see you again. And alive.”

Levi nodded and took out the two knives to show them to his best friends. Before he had decided to join the military, Farlan had been a genius at selling things at the highest price so Levi hoped that his friend could help him.

The white haired teenager whistled in amazement and took one of the knives to have a closer look at the golden engravings.

“So it is true,” Farlan whispered in astonishment. “You really went to the Yaeger house...”

“Those are only knives,” Levi shrugged and opened and closed his hands, trying to find a proper word to convey how weird and yet amazing was the Yaeger house. “I need to fetch some things, could you...”

Farlan grinned and pocketed the two knives.

“Of course!” he assured while he patted the dark haired teenager's back. “Go steal whatever you need and meet me here in two hours! I'll have sold those beauties by then!”

Levi acquiesced with a thin smile and promptly went to do his business while Isabel trailed after him to help distract his future preys.

* * *

 

When he got home, Levi was surprised to see that there were lights glowing at the porch. The sun had already set since long ago and he had had to walk in a pitch darkness for quite a while so it had been a good surprise. Levi widened his strides and almost began to run towards the house, his bag rattling with all the things in it but the dark haired boy ignored it. He passed through the clearing, not noticing how the grass was clinging to his trouser nor how the bushes swished when he walked next to them. He stopped on the porch and took out of his bag three flowers that he had found growing under a tree in the middle of the forest. They were black with a yellow heart and he was quite familiar with them as they only blossomed around Christmas and had been his friends' birthday present for him during years.

Levi scoffed lightly when he remembered Isabel's surprised face when she followed him during his search of those flowers and how Farlan had taunted him about a likely girlfriend that he had hidden from them. As if.

He just wanted to wipe that annoying smirk from Yaeger's lips.

Levi pushed open the door and wasn't surprised to see that the brown haired boy was in the living room, he was laying on the couch, his eyes closed and lips slightly parted while a book was laying open on his chest. The thief walked into the living room and stood in front of the sleeping boy, observing the faint wrinkles of worry under the teenager's eyes and the innocent curve of his lips.

But he quickly forgot about Eren's resting face and shook the boy awake with one hand. Once the teenager opened his eyes and glared at him with his yellow and angry eyes, Levi pushed the black flowers against his chest and clicked his tongue while a smug smirk made its way on his face.

“There you have it,” he claimed while he reset the bag strap on his shoulder. “Three flowers, just for you!”

Eren blinked, his eyes losing their yellow tinge and slowly taking a strange color. It was an indescribable mix of blue and green with soft specks of yellow. His lips turned into a small o and he took the three flowers while he knitted his brows in surprise.

“Those are black hellebores,” he said.

“So what?” Levi retorted with a shrug. “It's just three flowers and as such, I can sleep here again.”

Eren nodded, his face still showing surprise and he swiftly put his naked feet on the floor before he stood up, his face looking down at the dark haired teenager who had been surprised by the sudden proximity between them.

“It is,” Eren whispered while he stared unblinkingly at the thief. “Goodnight Levi.”

Levi blinked, taken aback by the sudden dismissal and he shrugged another time.

“Sure,” he muttered as he rubbed his neck to ease the kinks. “Goodnight Eren.”

* * *

 

That night, Levi woke up with a startled yelp. Mostly because he had felt some kind of cold wind surround him and take away his blanket. The teenager looked around him with surprised eyes, the room was too dark to see anything but Levi knew that he wasn't alone.

“Eren?” he called out with a breathless voice.

The bedroom door opened with a small creak and Levi was relieved to see Eren's face lightened by a candle that the boy was holding in his hands.

“Yes, Levi?” the teenager answered with his head slightly tilted.

“What happened?” the thief asked while he pointed at the blanket laying next to his bed. “Something woke me up. What was it?”

Eren pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes while he looked into the bedroom.

“The curse,” he reluctantly explained.

“What about it?” Levi insisted. “What happened here?”

Eren shook his head and took a step back.

“I can't tell you,” he admitted with soft sigh. The brown haired boy closed his eyes with a pained face and thinned his lips. “But you have to know this, Levi... It isn't a good sign. It never is. The nights in this house aren't to be spent asleep if you want to stay sane.”

“Is that what happened to you?” Levi inquired.

Eren laughed feebly and shook his head.

“No,” he admitted with a sad smile. “It was something else. Goodnight, Levi...”

“Wait!”

Levi rushed out of his bed and ran to take the other teenager by his wrist. Eren turned his head to look at the thief with a surprised face and the latter briefly noticed that the boy's eye color wasn't clear in the dim candlelight.

“Are you going to sleep?” Levi asked.

Eren shook his head.

“The night is dangerous when I have guests,” he whispered while his head hung low. “I need to stay awake to protect the house.”

Levi didn't need something else to make his mind.

“I'll keep you company,” he decided and his face was enough to stop Eren's protests.

* * *

 

“How old are you?”

Levi was startled awake by the teenager's question and he blinked his eyes blearily while he tried to remember where he was supposed to be. Eren was sitting in front of him, a heavy blanket draped around his lithe body while he nursed a cup of tea. The dark haired boy remembered that he was in the living room and trying to fight sleep.

“I'm eighteen,” he answered.

Eren pursed his lips and took a small sip of his tea. His eyes were staring at Levi's face and the latter did the same. The fireplace on their right created shadows on the brown haired teenager's face, making him look like a skeleton.

“And you?” Levi added when he decided that he didn't like the silence between them.

Eren glanced down at his cup of tea and sighed softly.

“I was eighteen when it happened,” he shrugged and looked at the thief. “I'm not sure how old I am now because I haven't aged since it happened...”

“How many winters ago?” Levi inquired in a whisper.

The other teen glanced at the fireplace and huffed.

“I've stopped counting,” he admitted. His face contorted into a grimace and he shook his head. “Do you have friends?”

“Who do you take me for?” Levi retorted with an annoyed scowl. “I have friends and they won't stop trying to dissuade me from going here...”

“They seem like nice and wise people,” Eren hummed with a small smirk.

The dark haired teen rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue.

“How about you,” he said while he raised a brow. “Do you have friends?”

To be honest, Levi was expecting a sobbing history of the brown haired boy's loneliness so he was quite surprised when he saw the other teenager smile fondly at him.

“I do,” he whispered, his lips at mere inches from his cup of tea. “A really smart boy and a really strong girl...”

“Then why aren't they here?” Levi couldn't help himself from asking and he quickly regretted it when he saw Eren flinch and close his eyes in a pained way.

“We were three people living in this house,” Eren said in a hushed voice, his eyes darkened by his memories. “They stayed with me until the very end, leaving their names and memories so they could stay more days with me. But it wasn't enough so I had to chase them from this house. The girl had to pull the boy so they could leave...”

“They left their names?” Levi repeated while he tried to ignore the teenager's saddened face. He was more intrigued by the strange way he had phrased his story.

Eren blinked and looked at him with a grim face.

“Yes,” he nodded. “They gave their name and identity to the curse. Even now, it is too late for them, they will never be able to have a name again.”

“Did you do that to me?” Levi asked as horror began to ice his blood in his vein.

Eren had told him that he had taken his name as one of his three things. Was it true? Did he lose his name?

“I took your surname,” the brown haired boy nodded grimly.

“What else can you take?”

Eren looked at the window and smiled in relief.

“Look!” he exclaimed happily. “The sunrise!”

Levi narrowed his eyes.  
Eren hadn't answered his question.

 

That had been Levi's third night at the Yaeger house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The flowers mentioned in the witch's ring were nemophila.
> 
>  **Nemophila** : Also named "baby blue-eyes", they bloom from spring to the end of fall. In the flower language, they can mean prosperity or forgiveness. 
> 
> **Black hellebore** : the hellebore has normally flowers with white petals but Levi found the rarer kind. In the flower language, they mean a plea to stop their suffering.


End file.
